Techno-News Blog

by Will Knight, Technology Review

There’s nothing like having a competent navigator, DJ, and conversationalist on a long drive. And perhaps a virtual copilot could be even better than the usual one who, let’s face it, often gets directions wrong or neglects his or her duties by falling asleep. We’ll soon find out. General Motors says a number of its 2013 models will be compatible with Apple’s wise-cracking, know-it-all virtual assistant, Siri. In the Chevrolet Spark or the Sonic LTZ or RS, you’ll be able to connect to an iPhone and then use Siri’s Eyes Free mode without ever glancing away from the road. Siri will find directions, look up information online, send e-mails, and the rest.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/507911/buckle-up-siri-meet-your-sassy-new-backseat-driver/

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

For three days last month, at eight randomly chosen times a day, my phone buzzed and Google asked me: “What did you want to know recently?” The answers I provided were part of an experiment involving me and about 150 other people. It was designed to help the world’s biggest search company understand how it can deliver information to users that they’d never have thought to search for online. Billions of Google searches are made every day—for all kinds of things—but we still look elsewhere for certain types of information, and the company wants to know what those things are. “Maybe [these users are] asking a friend, or they have to look up a manual to put together their Ikea furniture,” says Jon Wiley, lead user experience designer for Google search. Wiley helped lead the research exercise, known as the Daily Information Needs Study.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/507451/how-google-plans-to-find-the-ungoogleable/

by Jon Mitchell, ReadWrite

The Gmail team announced Tuesday that a wonderful new button is coming to Gmail’s new compose window. You can now attach files to a message using Google Drive, meaning you can send files as large as 10GB over email. Remember when you couldn’t send video or audio files because of attachment size limits? That’s history. Microsoft’s new Outlook.com mail offers the same functionality over SkyDrive, so this isn’t exactly revolutionary, but it sure is convenient, and Gmail’s millions of users will be pleased.

http://readwrite.com/2012/11/27/now-you-can-send-10gb-files-right-from-gmail

By Gerald Rhead, Evolllution

Higher education institutions will not be able to remain competitive in the current or future higher education marketplace without developing and delivering robust online offerings. In 2010, 6.1 million college students enrolled in at least one online course, according to the Babson 2011 survey of online education in the United States[1]. The survey also highlights online learning as an important strategy at U.S. colleges and universities with 65.5 percent of chief academic officers reporting that online learning is critical to their institution’s success. Increasingly, online learning is evolving as a key strategy for institutions of all sizes and flavors; but what is the impact on an institution’s competiveness, particularly when it involves enrolling adult students?

http://www.evolllution.com/distance_online_learning/when-convenience-becomes-customary/

by Julia Lawrence, Education News

You might have never heard of massive online open courses – also known as MOOCs – until last year, but that doesn’t mean this is the first time that distance learning has entered the mainstream. Although the spread of internet access to all parts of the globe have made mass education online a reality for the first time, those who wished to learn without traveling to a school or a university have been doing so since at least 1892 – receiving materials and sending assignments using the postal system. University of Chicago was the first school in America to offer learning by correspondence, which opened its doors in the last decade of the 19th century. The U.S. Postal Service did its part to shuttle information between the school and the student until radio broadcasts came into wide usage in the early 1920s and were then usurped by the television in 1963. Making the leap from the college campus entirely was Coastline Community College, which became the first campus-less school when it opened its – virtual – doors in 1970.

http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/distance-learning-was-around-long-before-moocs/

by Fredric Paul, ReadWrite

I recently had a chance to sit down over a Thai food lunch with Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst. Whitehurst, who took over Red Hat after leaving Delta Airlines in 2007, had a lot to say about the current situation of open source computing, and ReadWrite will be following up on many of those threads in the coming weeks and months. But I didn’t want to wait to share some of Whitehurst’s most interesting observations:

http://readwrite.com/2012/11/27/7-open-source-questions-with-red-hat-ceo-jim-whitehurst

by JOHN BIGGS, Tech Crunch

Something there is that doesn’t love a QR code, but that hasn’t stopped leading QR code scanner makers Scan from serving up 25 million copies of their software. The company, which currently processes 27 million codes per month, is offering version 2.0 of their product. The new Scan is deliciously simple to use. The new app offers a target overlay and almost instant scanning of QR, UPC, EAN, and ISBN numbers. It also works with the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini. While I would be the first to note that QR codes are approximately as sexy as pant suits, it’s nice that Scan has made the product look a little cooler than a grocery store checkout device.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/27/remember-qr-codes-the-leading-reader-scan-has-been-downloaded-25-million-times-scans-27-million-codes-a-month/

By Zach Honig, Engadget

If you’ve used Gmail to send attachments, chances are you’ve hit that 25MB limit once or twice. Google is rolling out a new Drive integration feature, letting you insert files that you already have in the cloud, effectively boosting the limit 400 fold to 10 gigs. The feature isn’t available to everyone just yet, but if you’re using the new composer tool and see the Drive logo in the bottom toolbar, you should be good to go. Simply click the icon and choose your file — if the intended recipient doesn’t already have access, you’ll be prompted to give them the nod. And, because the file is already stored in the cloud, any changes you make after the message goes out will be visible to your recipient, effectively letting you tweak that presentation or term paper after the submission deadline has passed.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/27/gmail-drive-integration/